Court upholds HIV bias claim

A state appeals court ordered a Walnutport nursing home and its lawyer to pay attorney fees to a former patient for filing a frivolous challenge to delay paying damages in the woman's claim she was kicked out of the home because she is HIV-positive.

The patient, identified in the Commonwealth Court's decision only as G.D., was admitted to Canal Side Care Manor in January 2008 because she could no longer live in a group home. When staff at Canal Side Care Manor learned that G.D. was diagnosed with HIV, the owner, Lakshmi Kademani, gave her 24 hours to leave, according to the decision.

Because the 36-year-old woman also suffered schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had nowhere else to go, she ended up in a locked psychiatric ward at St. Luke's Hospital for three months, according to the Commonwealth Court opinion.

"She was in that psychiatric facility for no reason other than the fact that there wasn't enough time to get her appropriate placement," said Ronda Goldfein, an attorney with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania who represented the woman. "You don't often see that direct link between discrimination and the harm that it causes someone."

In the appeal, a panel of three Commonwealth Court judges upheld a decision of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in favor of G.D., ordering Canal Side Care Manor and Kademani to pay $50,000 in damages and a $5,000 fine for discriminating against G.D.

The court also found that there was no factual or legal basis for Canal Side's appeal and said it agreed with the patient's claim the appeal was filed solely to cause further delay. Goldfein said that finding was particularly important in a case involving a patient with a potentially fatal disease.

"I think the court was sending a clear message that we're not going to stand for justice delayed with the hopes of justice denied," Goldfein said.

Garrett R. Benner of Bethlehem represented Canal Side Care Manor and Kademani. Benner said he had no comment on the decision.

According to the 22-page Commonwealth Court opinion by Judge Patricia A. McCullough, G.D. moved into the 62-bed nursing home in January 2008. Although the staff didn't know about G.D.'s HIV diagnosis, a clerk learned that G.D. was HIV positive when she interviewed G.D. about the medications she was taking.

Upon learning that G.D. was HIV-positive, Kademani told her that she had 24 hours to leave the nursing home. Although G.D.'s health-care provider and social worker advised Kademani that her staff had no cause for concern if they took normal precautions, Kademani refused to provide care for G.D., according to the opinion.

Considering G.D.'s discrimination complaint against Canal Side and Kademani, the human relations commission found Kademani's reason for asking G.D. to leave — that her staff could not cope with G.D.'s bladder incontinence — was not a meaningful problem for Canal Side.

Commonwealth Court noted that Canal Side had not requested a stay of the commission's order to pay damages to the former patient and Kademani had apparently been taking steps to hide her assets.

According to the opinion, Kademani recorded a deed transferring her property to a grandchild, and her husband had applied to create a corporation called Walnutport Manor to operate Canal Side. The court ordered Canal Side to post $60,000 in security before allowing the appeal to proceed.